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Discussion

Advice on education path

I am currently an ASN student and plan to graduate December of 2014. I plan to advance my education beyond my ASN starting January of 2015 and am curious if anyone has any advice of the course I should take. I was to become a nurse practitioner. Would that require an MSN or a DNP? Also, I want to work in a clinic or some sort of community outreach that helps women and children, but particularly helps children suffering from sexual abuse. With that being said, I know that nurse practitioners have different points of focus. I don't know whether my focus should be psych, family, peds, or what?

I know for a fact from personal experiences and working in the legal field with my mother that childhood sexual abuse occurs more often than one would think. My main goal would be to help moms get help for their children and if the children are taken away from mom out of the abusive situation and are foster children or living with another family member, I want to help the children and family members cope with the history of abuse, heal, and move forward in life. I have seen first-hand what happens when sexual abuse of a child is not stopped and the child becomes an adult with no one to help. My sister is a social worker and was venting to me about a homeless patient she had who was pregnant. While volunteering in the ED that same girl came in to the ED. She told me her life story and this poor girl was a mess. My own mother-in-law suffered from this and her adoptive mother was very mean to her growing up. She is now a chronic alcoholic (like drinks a 12 pack of beer plus hard liquor daily) alcoholic. She is unfriendly and always puts her men first. My husband was taken away from her when he was 9 and she really had nothing to do with him until he was almost 30.

I know this is a long ways away but i would like to start planning now. A local university where I live offers an RN-BSN program as well as an RN-MSN program. I am thinking I will take the MSN route, just not sure where to go from there. Thank you and any help will be appreciated.

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    First off, congratulations on getting started on your nursing career! You'll find a lot of different personality types and a lot of different directions your career can take.

    It sounds like you have a very specific patient population in mind. I wonder if you might be more suited to a social work career. Though I could imagine some NP's in job areas working with that population, it wouldn't be the first group that would come to mind. Maybe talk with your sister about options in that field.

    Next, if you really do want to become an NP, you should probably plan on a DNP being the required entry level for the profession by the time you get there. In the meantime, you will probably have worked as an RN for a number of years and perhaps have honed your interests to a particular NP area of study and/or met some practicing NP's in those areas.

    Good luck!

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    Thanks for the advice. I actually was pre-med and stopped going to school for a year, then enrolled in a community college and have just completed my first semester of the ASN program. I want to be in a practitioner role but think that since I have decided to go down the nursing path (which I enjoy) I will not be going to med school. I am not interested in social work, though. I appreciate the profession; it just doesn't suit me.

    I was unaware that the DNP is soon to be the new requirement for NP's, so thanks for the heads up on that. I just feel like even if I have to do part-time to help this specific population, there is a need. As stated before, there are so many children being abused and many times caregivers feel like they have no options. I want to educate families, treat mental and physical issues that incur from the abuse, and also work with social workers to find suitable living arrangements for these people. I guess like you said once I have worked as an RN for a few years maybe I will find my niche. That is very good to know about getting the DNP rather than the MSN. I will look more in to that.

    I know Cummins (a mental health company in my state) has nurse practitioners that treat these sorts of patients. I just want to do it in a more non-profit sort of environment.

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    If a job like what you described exists, I would think it would be at the RN level not the NP level. Keep in mind that NPs have to bill for their services and what you are describing is not diagnosing and treating. If you wanted to do just the psychotherapy part, psych NP would be a good fit. Or if you want to do the initial exam and investigation part, there are ER NP jobs for that. I would think trying to get a pediatric psych nurse job after graduation would be a good place to start. And maybe try to find volunteer jobs that allow you to work in that area and try to learn more about potential opportunities.

    PS: The DNP is not required but many schools are switching to only offering that. Just do whatever program makes the most sense to you.

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